Thailand to Block Unlicensed Crypto Platforms

Thailand is set to block unlicensed crypto platforms in order to enhance the efficiency of law enforcement agencies to solve the problems of money laundering and other online crimes.

The country's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will submit a list of unlicensed crypto exchanges to the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society.

The SEC's decision comes after a meeting of the Technology Crime Prevention and Suppression Committee that was held last week.

Thai SEC Secretary-General Pornanong Budsaratragoon quickly made the order public.

The SEC said that it looked at the examples of countries like India and Philippines in blocking such unauthorised crypto platforms and came to the aforementioned decision.

The Commission will give the affected users enough time to address and manage their accounts before they cannot use those services any longer.

Crypto Regulation in Thailand

Thailand was ranked at the 10th position in the Global Crypto Adoption Index published by Chainalysis last year.

Thailand, along with India and Nigeria, are among the leading lower middle-income (LMI) nations when it comes to the grassroots adoption of cryptocurrency.

The SEC also mentioned the SEC Check First application where users can check the regulatory status of different crypto platforms.

Any of the leading global crypto exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, KuCoin, Kraken and OKX being registered with the securities regulator in Thailand.

In January last year, the SEC issued fresh regulations for digital asset service providers.

The regulator requires firms operating in the digital assets space to establish a digital wallet management system that would also ensure the safety of clients’ assets.